Women’s Community Services
The Nelson Trust’s Women’s Community Services span across Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Bristol, and Wales. We also have a first-of-its-kind Women’s Centre inside HMP Eastwood Park. Services are trauma-informed, gender responsive, and provide holistic support for women and their families.
Our strength-based and collaborative approach views women as human beings first – not just someone with needs and risks, but someone with strengths, interests, personal experiences and goals.
Each of our clients has their own Keyworker who works with them to co-create a support plan to address their needs. This is achieved through one-to-one sessions, group work and access to specialist service.
Our services are underpinned by a comprehensive support system and methodologies that include assertive outreach, women’s centres, advocacy and support approaches, custody liaison and diversion, prison in-reach and residential treatment.
Throughout the week our Women’s Centres offer a full timetable of activities, including accredited educational courses, workshops, drop-ins and groups, which cover wellbeing, life skills and creative activities. Most of our centres also have onsite creche facilities, showers, washing machines, a garden and cafe, that are all available for clients to utilise.
Below is a short documentary that tells you a bit more about what you can expect from The Nelson Trust and our Women’s Community Services:
Residential Rehabilitation Treatment
Our residential treatment programme is one of the longest established abstinence-based services in the UK. Since 1985 we have provided trauma-informed residential rehabilitation to clients across fifty nationwide referral pathways. Our four dedicated residential houses support up to forty-four people at any one time to achieve abstinence from substance misuse. The programme’s success in helping our clients recover from addiction and alcohol abuse has provided it with a national reputation for excellence and innovation.
Our service delivery model is based on the Recovery Capital model delivered through a trauma informed approach. What this means is that the service user identifies their strengths and needs and co-creates a care plan with their Recovery Worker. This informs a tailored, personal timetable of treatment, including structured programme of weekly 1:1 sessions, educative sessions and group work to support, encourage, motivate, and promote recovery principles and healthy-living. Our deep understanding of trauma is interwoven into all we do including the impact of adverse childhood experiences and the unhealthy management of trauma through substance misuse. We feel that emotional and physical safety is essential for clients to engage with treatment meaningfully.
In providing emotional and physical safety we prioritise welcoming environments, safe settings, enhancement of recovery capital, and development of a sense of wellbeing, belonging, and a solid framework of boundaries. Our therapeutic programme includes:
- Counselling
- Psycho-educational groups
- Volunteering opportunities
- Art therapy
- Yoga and acupuncture
- Wellness walks in nature
We have been independently evaluated by the National Addiction Centre at Kings College London, Lancaster University and John Moore’s University. We specialise in working with addiction, women with a sex working history and men and women who have experienced trauma. We offer 12 or 24 week residential treatment with 24hr staffing, individualised packages of care alongside evidence based programmes focusing on maintenance of abstinence and emotional resilience.
In the video below you will hear from some of our former clients about their experience in residential treatment with The Nelson Trust:
Hub Enterprises
Recovery is a journey. The Hubs serve the recovering community by providing:
- Therapeutic ways to explore the recovery journey, for example, through art, writing and alternative therapies.
- Training in life skills to help people get back on their feet and look after themselves.
- Education to help people return to work.
Our enterprises operate with the aim of becoming self-sustaining. Not just financially sustainable but also through the development of a strong, confident and effective service user-led community.
Hub Academy: The High Flyers
For people in recovery from drug and alcohol use, one of the first steps in their journey is to re-engage in education, training or meaningful activity. At The Hub Academy our aim is to provide both a supportive learning environment for people in recovery and trauma, and also a comfortable conference and training space.
The Sober Parrot
A not-for-profit, charity run cafe, live music venue and alcohol-free bar in the centre of Cheltenham. The Sober Parrot offers brunch and lunch every Wednesday to Saturday until 3pm and is a pet-friendly space where children and dogs are welcome. The cafe is operated by a mix of paid staff and volunteers who are gaining employment experience.
Address: 7 St James Square, Cheltenham, GL50 3PR
Common Ground Community Garden
The Common Ground Community Garden is managed by The Nelson Trust in partnership with the Gloucester Community Foundation. It provides an outdoor space for staff and volunteers to work together as well provides a calm and serene space for the local community.
The Clean Plate
A not-for-profit, charity run cafe, in the centre of Gloucester. The Clean Plate offers brunch and lunch on Saturdays until 3:00pm and Sundays until 4:00pm. It offers a tranquil rest space in the heart of the city, with free WiFi.
Address: 59 Southgate Street, Gloucester, GL1 1TX
Gloucestershire Drug and Alcohol Service
We’re proud to join forces with Via to support the Gloucestershire Drug and Alcohol Service, a new confidential initiative funded by Gloucestershire County Council.
As part of this partnership, we have teamed up with Via to provide assistance to individuals throughout Gloucestershire through three innovative programmes: Women’s Pathway, Family Support Model, and Recovery and Aftercare.
Our mission is to instill belief, foster hope, and support long-term recovery for those affected by substance use and multiple disadvantages.
Recovery Housing
Recovery housing offers a safe and supportive space to grow and heal as residents continue on their recovery journey, as they commit to managing semi-independent living with low-level support.
Our Recovery Housing aims to continue building on individuals Recovery Capital, and we achieve this by encouraging all residents to participate in weekly meaningful activities, such as volunteering, education, peer mentoring or participating in workshops in their local community.
We currently have three properties that are open to the whole recovery community to apply for, each unique, welcoming and a space for residents to call home. There are two houses in the beautiful countryside of Stroud and one in Gloucester, with every property grounded in a shared commitment to long-term healing and recovery through an abstinence-based approach.
